Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
Violet
“ I ’m sorry Vi.”
He doesn’t seem sorry.
James hands me a handwritten note.
I clench my fist around it screwing it into a little ball of crumpled paper.
Stroming over to my car, I get in, throwing my bag into the passenger seat before throwing myself into the driver’s seat. I’m still holding the stupid piece of paper.
Landon.
He’s behind this.
Ten years since he strolled into my life, shaking it up.
Mum was so excited, and I was so naive.
He would tease me relentlessly, at home and school. No one did anything. It wasn’t until he left for university that I found out he was warning guys away from me.
Asshole.
I got to uni and I met James. My first boyfriend. My only boyfriend. My now ex-boyfriend.
And I’m convinced it’s because of my big brother.
I roll my eyes at that. I hate when people don’t add the step-. It makes us sound like actual siblings. Like we have the same parents. Or at least one in common. Like we grew up together. Like we actually like each other.
But you do like him. That annoying little voice in the back of my mind tells me. I kill that little voice.
I haven’t liked Landon in years.
The voice lets out a choked laugh and retreats.
After a thirty-minute drive I’m pulling up into the driveway of my childhood home. I take note that Mum and Xavier aren’t home. But Landon’s car in the driveway shows he is. I can almost guarantee Maverick and Axel are there as well. Great.
I take a deep calming breath. But as I reach for my bag I take in the note.
All calm is gone.
Landon
“Landon, you piece of shit!” Violet screams as soon as she enters the house, slamming the front door behind her with such force that the windows shake.
Dad and Claire are out at the moment which is why she's yelling the way she is. I’m sitting in what used to be my bedroom with Maverick and Axel. My best friends.
I stifled a laugh at the reminder of the day Dad came home telling me was married. God, I hated the thought of a stepmum let alone a little sister. But Violet and I had a silent agreement, she stayed out of my way, and I stayed out of hers it was perfect. Until it wasn’t.
I never thought of myself as a possessive person, but where Violet was concerned that was a different story. I was becoming possessive. She was mine. Even if she didn’t know it yet.
When I went to university in the city, I asked Axel and Maverick to watch out for her.
I knew she would be protected with them watching, that was until one year when I came back for Christmas, and I realised they dropped the fucking ball when I was introduced to James, Violet’s idiotic boyfriend. Fucking James.
Maverick asks, “Do you think he told her?”
“No way. He’s too much of a pussy.”
“Yeah, but—” Maverick is cut off when the bedroom door flies open and in enters a very angry Violet. Her unnatural red hair is the perfect colour to represent how angry she is. And those iridescent blue eyes are flashing with hate and annoyance. I can’t help but groan when I feel my cock harden.
“James just broke up with me.”
“Okay…that doesn’t explain why you’re in my room.”
“I know you have something to do with it, you and them.” She points at Maverick and Axel. “You dicks.” She throws a scrunched-up note at me.
Maverick and Axel are both sitting still. But Maverick is struggling to fight off a smile.
“He broke up with you in a note?”
“Who even does that?” Axel asks, and the hatred that Violet had directed at me is now directed at him. It’s my turn to smile, only I don’t try and hide it.
“Well, apparently, James,” Maverick helpfully states.
“You’re all morons.”
I wonder how many names she can call us.
While Violet’s hate isn’t on me, I read the note:
Vi,
sorry but this isn’t working.
I think you’re great, but I think it’s over.
James.
I roll my eyes. I’m glad I got rid of him. But still, what a fucking prick. A note, really? That’s just as bad as a text.
I pass the note to Maverick, who snorts and passes it to Axel, who manages to stay silent, but I can see him working his jaw.
“Look Letty?—”
“Don’t start that Letty bullshit. You know I hate it.”
I know. That’s why I do it . “I don’t know why you think we had something to do with this, but we don’t. Why would we?”
Maverick coughs to cover a laugh, and Axel elbows him, shaking his head. I just ignore them both, but Violet can’t; she is throwing daggers at them. If looks could kill, we’d all be dead.
“I don’t know what you said or what you did but I’ll find out.”
I don’t reply.
“When do you leave again?” She turns on her heel and storms out before I can answer. I’m not leaving. Not again.
I’m assuming we’re all watching her peachy ass sway as she leaves. Silence then fills the room, but I’m the one to break it, “That prick . I said to be vague but that is nothing.”
“Want me to pay him a visit?” Maverick asks, almost wanting me to say yes.
A sadistic smile breaks over my face at the memory of using photos to blackmail James into breaking up with her. “He’s gone now, so little Letty is all ours.”
I have waited a long time for this. Stalking her social media and only coming home for two weeks over Christmas wasn’t enough. Then having to watch her with James made my blood boil. Violet—she is mine. She is ours. Time for us to claim her.
Maverick states the obvious, saying, “She didn’t even seem that sad.”
“Probably because she isn’t,” Alex flatly states.
“They were together for two years.”
“Eighteen months.”
“What is the difference?”
Axel rolls his eyes. “About six months.”
I listen to Maverick and Axel go back and forth before speaking, “She knew he wasn’t right for her. But the three of us are.”
Maverick gives me a shit-eating grin, while Axel’s lips twitch up ever so slightly; that’s as much emotion we will get from him. It’s time for us to take what has always been ours.